There’s something happening here. What it is – not exactly clear. There’s a guy with a phone over there, telling me – what? Do I need to beware?

.

He could be doing almost anything with that phone – texting, reading, working, shopping, watching a movie, setting the thermostat at home, checking on his pets..

He might as easily be scamming, catfishing, trolling, hacking, spreading conspiracy theories, committing hate crimes.

But is he using that phone to actually talk to anyone?

Within the relatively short time frame of my adult life, the expansion of communication technology has significantly changed the way the world goes about its daily business. Sure, things like TV, satellites, telephones and computers, and even a fledgling internet existed long before I was on the scene, but for about 100 years all of those ingenious ways of creating person-to-person connections and transmitting information changed and improved and gained popularity, gradually coming together like a technological snowball, building up mass and speed as it rolled over the world in a massive avalanche.

When that avalanche hit, it provided us with the ability to see and hear events around the world as they happen. To easily talk face-to-face with people no matter what country they’re in – or even if they’re in space.

But if you need stuff and you’re not in the mood for talking, pretty much anything you need can be chosen, purchased and delivered directly to your home without you needing to interact with anyone.

Instead of standing in line hoping to get tickets for current movies or making sure we’re at home when our favorite TV shows are on, we can stream whatever we want to watch whenever and wherever we want to watch it.

We’re no longer at the mercy of radio stations, listening to whatever music they deem worthy of airtime, but can listen to our favorite songs from any time period, shuffling them into whatever type of playlist we want. And instead of waiting and hoping for a rare appearance by our favorite band on a TV variety show, we have our choice of platforms to see their performances anytime. We can keep up with their activities on social media and even leave comments for them.

Entering a few words into Google will get us information when we need it. And for serious fact-finding, remote access to academic or scientific databases allow for research and collaboration without necessarily traveling to a library or lab. But if you do find you need to travel, all you need is the address – there’s no need to ask for directions or keep a road atlas in your car.

All of these changes are huge on their own, but the fact that we can do it using something we can carry around in a pocket – it still seems a bit magical to me. And I doubt if I’m the only one who feels that way – remember Back to the Future: Part II? In 1989, the filmmakers imagined a 2015 with flying cars and self-tying shoes, but when Marty McFly’s son needs to call someone when he’s out and about, he has to find a phone booth. They do have a video phone at home, but it’s gigantic, mounted on the wall and attached to a fax machine.

I’ve become as reliant on all of these technological conveniences as anyone else and I know there’s no going back, but I wonder even now – are we actually ready for it all? Perhaps more importantly, though a bit late to contemplate – is it even good for us?

As much as I love having information at my very fingertips and multiple forms of entertainment on demand, I sometimes miss the specialness of waiting and planning for a TV show or movie that I know only comes on once a year, or the excitement of seeing a favorite performer in a rare TV appearance. But I don’t miss it enough to give up on the instant gratification provided by connectivity. Still, I sense that the easier it becomes to express our own ideas, the worse we become at taking the time to understand what others are thinking.

It seems like it should be useful and positive, this ability to learn about people and events around the world in real time. Unfortunately, ability to spread information and ideas quickly is not necessarily connected with reliability. But sometimes it’s just too easy to see or hear something and assume it’s true, to believe that people are being honest. Who has the time to check sources for everything? If information is sensational, shocking, humiliating or nonsensical, it may well go “viral” – a word that for its first 50 years of use implied the spreading of disease, a meaning that is uncomfortably appropriate when applied to some widespread messages/videos.

The ease with which we accept viral news, no matter how unsubstantiated, is nothing new. The sentiment that “there’s no smoke without fire,” implying that any bit of juicy gossip must have some truth behind it, was recorded as early as the 14th century. Just because we can hear about more information more quickly than we could 700 years ago, doesn’t mean we have to be any more thoughtful about the dangers of handling it carelessly.

Depending on how much you put yourself out there, your comments on social media might be seen by what – hundreds? thousands? millions? Comments that maybe should be made face-to-face to one or two people, whose reactions you could see and hear immediately, giving you a sense of how your message is coming across. But it’s just too easy to comment from a distance, to have the freedom to make your point when you want to, without anyone interrupting with their own observations and opinions.

And if anyone does object to what you’re saying, you can search for and find a space with like-minded people, folks who share your concerns. A space where you can exist in a bubble of agreement and remain convinced that you’re right and those who disagree with you are wrong.

Or you can be like me and hide from social media to avoid crossing the battle lines being drawn, at this time when the US is divided not-very-neatly in half, with each half refusing to accept that the other half might be right about anything. And if nobody’s right, then everybody’s wrong. I’m very much afraid that’s what we’re stuck with, no matter what happens politically in the coming months.

I may have seen amazing advances in communication technology in my lifetime, but it seems unlikely I’ll live long enough to see us learn how to use it to really understand and appreciate each other.